Person

Susie Gelman

Nationality:

American

Occupation:

President, Morningstar Foundation

Spouse:

Michael Gelman

Children:

Rachel Gelman

Contact InfluenceWatch with suggested edits or tips for additional profiles.

Susie Gelman is a philanthropist and left-of-center Jewish-issues activist. She is the president of the Morningstar Foundation, former board chair of the left-of-center Israel Policy Forum, a former three-term president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and one term as its campaign co-chair, co-chaired the Israel Religious Expressions Platform of the Jewish Federations of North America, and was also reportedly one of President Joe Biden’s top candidates for the post of United States Ambassador to Israel. President Biden appointed Gelman to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in July 2023. 1 2 3 4

Susie Gelman’s daughter, Rachel Gelman, is the chair of the Bafrayung Fund, a left-of-center grantmaking organization that has made grants to organizations such as the Arab American Action Network,  Climate Justice Alliance, and the Palestinian Youth Movement through Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation, also known as the WESPAC Foundation. 5 A 2024 report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) identified WESPAC as the lead financial contributor to NSJP and the Palestinian Youth Movement through Rachel Gelman’s Bafrayung Fund. 6

Background

Susie Gelman is the president of the Morningstar Foundation, the former board chair of the left-of-center Israel Policy Forum from 2016 through 2023, and spent three terms as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington (JFGW). She also spent one term as JFGW’s campaign co-chair and is a lifetime member of its board of directors. 1

Gelman previously co-chaired the Israel Religious Expressions Platform of the Jewish Federations of North America and was also reportedly one of President Joe Biden’s top candidates for the post of United States Ambassador to Israel. President Biden appointed Gelman to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in July 2023. 1 2 3

Gelman was the inaugural chair of the Birthright Israel Foundation and served for years as a member of its board of directors. She is also a member of the board of governors of The Hebrew University, past president of the Georgetown Day School Board of Trustees, and past president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, where she is still a board member as of June 2024. She is also a vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation. 3 7

She received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. 1

Family

Susie Gelman, born Susan Goldman, is a member of the billionaire Strauss family, the heirs to the Levi Strauss & Co. clothing fortune. Her grandfather was Walter A. Haas Sr., an American businessman who helped grow Levi Strauss & Co. from a small manufacturing company into one of the largest apparel companies in the world. 8 9

Gelman’s mother was Rhoda Haas Goldman, the only daughter born to Walter A. Haas Sr., and his wife, Elise Stern. Levi Strauss died without children or a spouse in 1902. When he died, the company fell to Stern, as she was Strauss’ nephew’s only child. 6

Gelman’s father was Richard Goldman, a San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist who founded the Goldman Environmental Prize and the now-closed Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation. Richard and Rhoda Goldman supported left-leaning organizations, including ones devoted to Jewish causes and pro-abortion rights advocacy. 10

After Richard Goldman’s death in November 2010, the foundation closed and approximately $280 million in assets was transferred to separate foundations belonging to their children, John Goldman, Doug Goldman, and Susie Gelman, who is the president of the Morningstar Foundation. 11

Susie Gelman’s husband is Michael Gelman, the managing director of the Morningstar Foundation. He was also a founding partner of the Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman accounting firm (now GRF CPAs & Advisors). He has spent three terms as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, a nonprofit that promotes the Jewish community in the Washington, D.C. area and internationally. Michael Gelman also was the organization’s co-campaign chair and spent one term as the president of the organization’s endowment fund. 12 13

Michael Gelman was previously the treasurer for the Jewish Federations of North America, where he is now the chair of the executive committee. Then-President Bill Clinton appointed Gelman as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council from 1995 to 2004. He was also appointed to the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents by former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening (D), serving in that position from 1996 to 2000. 13

Michael Gelman sits on the board of multiple organizations including the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a foreign affairs think tank that has played an influential role in shaping perspectives on the Arab world, Iran, Turkey, the Israel-Palestine conflict, terrorism, and related issues among American lawmakers, mil­­itary leaders, and intelligence officials. The Washington Institute claims to reject “romantic” perspectives on the Middle East and to offer “disinterested” analyses of the region’s affairs. 14

He also sits on the board of directors at the Jewish Agency for Israel, American Jewish International Relations Institute, Hillel International (also known as Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life), and the Congressional Bank. 13

Rachel Gelman is the daughter of Susie and Michael Gelman. Rachel is the chair and manager of the Bafrayung Fund, a California-based private grantmaking foundation that donates to left-of-center to radical-left organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC). 5

Rachel appeared in a 2020 New York Times article titled “The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism.” In the article, Rachel described her political beliefs as “anticapitalist, anti-imperialist, and abolitionist.” She also claimed that as her inherited wealth “is mostly stocks,” it “means it comes from underpaying and undervaluing working-class people, and that it is impossible to disconnect from the economic legacies of Indigenous genocide and slavery.” 15

Anti-Israel Funding

Susie Gelman is the president of the Morningstar Foundation, a private grantmaking foundation based in Bethesda, Maryland, that supports left-of-center organizations including Jewish advocacy group Bend the Arc, the Social Venture Fund for Jewish-Arab Equality and Shared Society, and Keshet, a group that advocates for LGBT Jews. 4

A 2024 report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) identified major groups funding the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel advocacy group that supports student activism on college campuses and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. 16 17

The report found that the WESPAC (Westchester People’s Action Coalition) Foundation, a left-of-center nonprofit that supports advocacy movements for social reformation, is the lead financial contributor to NSJP and the Palestinian Youth Movement through Rachel Gelman’s Bafrayung Fund. 6

The report listed the Morningstar Foundation, as well as the Gelman family, as financial sponsors of this pro-Palestinian movement due to their collective donations to the Bafrayung Fund. The report said donations totaled approximately $3,470,000 between 2019 and 2022. 6

After the Daily Beast published this information regarding the report and Rachel Gelman’s involvement in funding anti-Israel protests, ISGAP revised the report to no longer list the Bafrayung Fund as the most prominent donor. According to tax filings, a $1,000,000 donation from the Morningstar Foundation to the Bafrayung Fund happened in 2022, and a grant for $20,000 from Bafrayung to WESPAC, with a designation for the Palestinian Youth Movement, also happened in 2022. 8 18 5

References

  1. “Susie Gelman.” Israel Policy Forum. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://israelpolicyforum.org/about/leadership/susie-gelman/.
  2. Staff, Jerusalem Post. “Former US-Israel Policy forum head’s daughter backs anti-Zionist campus protests – report.” The Jerusalem Post . May 31, 2024. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-804404.
  3. “USCIRF Welcomes President Biden’s Appointment of Susie Gelman to U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.” USCIRF. July 1, 2024. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/uscirf-welcomes-president-bidens-appointment-susie-gelman-us.
  4. “The Morningstar Philanthropic Foundation – 2017.” ProPublica. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/521270464/02_2019_prefixes_47-52%2F521270464_201712_990PF_2019020916081556.
  5.  “Bafrayung Fund – 2022.” ProPublica. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/832811578/202343199349100304/full.
  6. Israel, David. “Report: Levi Strauss Heir Rachel Gelman a Major Force Behind Pro-Hamas Groups.” JewishPress.com. May 29, 2024. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/antisemitism-news/anti-israel-ngos/report-levi-strauss-heir-rachel-gelman-a-major-force-behind-pro-hamas-groups/2024/05/29/.
  7. “Susan R. Gelman.” Goldman Environmental Prize. March 11, 2022. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.goldmanprize.org/people/susan-r-gelman/.
  8. Israel, David. “Report: Levi Strauss Heir Rachel Gelman a Major Force Behind Pro-Hamas Groups.” JewishPress.com. May 29, 2024. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/antisemitism-news/anti-israel-ngos/report-levi-strauss-heir-rachel-gelman-a-major-force-behind-pro-hamas-groups/2024/05/29/.
  9. “History & Legacy.” Walter and Elise Haas Fund. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://haassr.org/our-identity/historylegacy/.
  10. “Richard N. Goldman, Civic Leader and Patron, Dies at 90.” New York Times. December 4, 2010. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/05goldman.html.
  11. Fagan, Kevin. “Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund gets split 3 ways.” SFGate. January 19, 2011. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/richard-and-rhoda-goldman-fund-gets-split-3-ways-2478863.php.
  12. “Morningstar Philanthropic Foundation – 2022.” ProPublica. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521270464/202313189349100401/full.
  13. “Michael Gelman.” GRF CPAs & Advisors. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.grfcpa.com/people/michael-gelman/.
  14. “Our Mission & History.” The Washington Institute. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/about/our-mission-history.
  15. “The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism.” New York Times. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/style/trust-fund-activism-resouce-generation.html.
  16. “BDS Victories — National Students for Justice in Palestine.” National Students for Justice in Palestine. May 1, 2011. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://nationalsjp.org/bds-victories.
  17. “Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).” Anti-Defamation League. October 19, 2023. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/students-justice-palestine-sjp.
  18. Bredderman, William. “Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests Were Funded by Rachel Gelman, Despite Family Being Jewish.” May 28, 2024. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.thedailybeast.com/pro-palestinian-campus-protests-were-funded-by-rachel-gelman-despite-family-being-jewish.
  See an error? Let us know!